Frankfurter Macaroni Salad Loaf, 1955 – A Mid-Century Recipe Test

So, talk about starting this year off with a bang. I bring you perhaps the most completely mid-century recipe we’ve made in a while. This one has it all: gelatin, hot dogs, lots of mayo and macaroni. AND it’s in a loaf. So it’s pretty much the complete mid-century package.

Pack half of mixture into oiled 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Put 3 frankfurters lengthwise about ¾ inch apart at one end of mixture. Cut remaining whole frankfurter in half crosswise. Use these halves and remaining half frankfurter to fill other end of loaf. Cover with remaining macaroni mixture and pack down. Chill until firm.

3.5.3208

A big soup-y macaroni mess.

As a side note, I thought this would smell like mac and cheese, but it actually smelled pretty horrible.

Hot dog placement is key!

The finished loaf-shaped dinner.

Can you see the structural crack? It split when de-panning. But the good news is it was so sticky I was able to just squish it back together.

Okay that’s….strange.

“What is that weird flavor?”

“Well, there’s a lot of stuff in there.”

“One thing in particular is really bad.”

“Describe it.”

“It’s…horribly creamy.”

“That would be the mayo.”

The Verdict: Horribly Creamy

From The Tasting Notes –

It’s really hard to come up with words to describe how wrong this was. Because you look at the ingredients and think, “This should be okay at least. I mean, there’s no onion in it. And the gelatin is unflavored. It should just taste like cold macaroni and cheese.” But no. It’s bad. Really, really, really bad. The aftertaste of mayo is intense. It actually brings tears to your eyes.When I took a bite and chewed it, I actually twitched when the mayo flavor hit me. Imagine that you have an eject button in your mouth, and the flavor of mayo just saunters right up to that button and kicks it. Really hard. It was an effort not spit my bite across the room, and swallowing it was an even bigger struggle. The creaminess and tang that most people love in mayo is actually the worst possible taste and texture for this dish, and it comes at the worst possible time in the tasting.

I love everything retro, vintage, mid-century, kitsch and all things atomic! A 21st century housewife just trying to fit in...to the 50's. I have a passion for vintage recipes and an enormous vintage cookbook collection that I keep testing, even though by now I should know better. Creator of Mid-Century Menu (www.midcenturymenu.com), No Pattern Required (www.nopatternrequired.com), and I Ate The 80's (www.iatethe80s.com).

22 Comments

Adele
on February 4, 2015 at 10:29 am

My parents were married in 1953 and my mom cooked plenty of meals that involved Campbell’s condensed soups, French-fried onions, water chestnuts (elegant and exotic!), crunchy chop-suey noodles, and/or Cheez-Whiz. Other than salad ingredients, all vegetables were frozen or canned. All spices and herbs (the few there were), including parsley, were dried. Jello with or without canned fruit cocktail in it was a treat we loved. And this was pretty standard at all my friends’ houses. But Mom NEVER cooked anything like this or any of the totally weird things you manage to find. There would have been rebellion in the ranks and my dad would have had a fit. Thank goodness my mom was just not very adventurous in the kitchen. And I still love her food.

Well? My parents married in 1957 and..I have to differ with you somewhat. Mom probably wouldn’t have ventured into most of the recipes here but we had our share. Ever have Cheez Whiz on Wonder Bread? Don’t. Chuck roast in a bag anyone? Not a favorite. Still..she made some of the best bread I’ve ever eaten even still.

I have a noted aversion to mayo, so this hits a pretty big NOPE button right off the bat! It’s a bit sad… I’m not opposed to the slop-like combination of pasta and hot dogs, in an I’m-secretly-eight-years-old kind of way, but man, this just looks like everything wrong at once!

Oh my. Seriously just about spit out my coffee reading that. You are such brave souls. Just reading half the ingredients you use just makes my stomach churn. Thank you for being such brave Mid-Century guinea pigs, LOL!

I am glad to find others who are fascinated by culinary delights of the era. I have many mid-century cookbooks, and there is definitely some strong infatuation with mayonnaise or Miracle Whip salad dressing. Do you know why?

My friend Lyth recently made this for a retro food potluck I hosted, after seeing this post.

I knew it was bad, but I had no idea how the bad taste kind of crept up on you.

I tried this after four or five cups of 50s strength punch and thought it was okay, but couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for hours. Blech blech blech AUGH. Remembering the taste alone is making me gag. And it’s still living in my fridge.

I just cried a whole bunch laughing so hard after reading this. I totally want to make it except that with all the various dietary issues in my house I’d have to either do a vegan version, or at least use sheets’ milk cheese. Hmm… Probably just going to look at these pictures and laugh some more! Thank you for doing this!

I made this for a retro food party but I didn’t want it to go untouched because of the nasty mayo flavor so I subbed it for condensed cheese soup. A totally legit sub since it was widely used. It actually makes the whole thing palatable.

Hmm . . . gelatin in 1/2 c milk; hard-boil the egg and add it chopped to the macaroni/mayo, adding chopped celery, red pepper, green onion, grated carrot and a little vinegar, along with shredded cheddar, instead of Velveeta; brown the hot dogs in a pan first, cool; and put some freshly ground black pepper in it. I love the potential in these recipes! The milk, even reduced, is still going to flatten out the taste, but I wouldn’t know how to get it into a loaf shape that stays that way without it. I must make this.

Since I found your wonderful website I know where my mother learned to cook. We actually had to try to eat some of these potions. By the time my sister and I werei n high school we refused to eat ANYTHING my mom cooked. There was one particularly outstanding dish she loved to make. She called it Smothered Porkchops, and said it came from a magazine she read at the beauty shop. (Perhaps after sniffing too much hairspray.) She could not make rice, so she substituted instant mashed potatoes. It was a big mess of ersatz mashed potatoes with pork chops buried in them and a can of Campbell’s tomato soup poured over it all, then baked. We rechristened it “Bloody Noses”. She still tries to make it for us when we visit.